Star Wars: The Old Republic Gets an Official Podcast, a New Devblog and Weekly Q&A

Star Wars: The Old Republic patch 1.2 is drawing near and, judging from what I’m seeing on the test server, thing are going to change a lot in the universe set three millennia before Darth Vader, thanks to a sizable amount of improvements and new content.

BioWare seems to want everyone to notice as well, showing a clear acceleration in the ways the developer communicates with the playerbase.

First and foremost SWTOR now has an official podcast, hosted by Eric Musco and Brooks Guthrie. The pilot episode focuses on combat and balance, letting developers Austin Peckenpaugh and Cameron Winston talk about some of the changes coming in Game Update 1.2. They also shed some light on the whole decision making and testing process, and on what constitutes helpful feedback on the forums. You can listen to the podcast at the bottom of this post.

Secondly a new devblog by Principal Lead PvP & Endgame Designer Gabe Amatangelo has been posted, showcasing the upcoming changes to PvP and warzones.

Amatangelo explains how queuing and matchmaking will work from 1.2, with a clear focus on the new ranked system, that will accommodate the most competitive between us.

He also illustrates how the new rewards will work (As a proficient Huttball player I can’t wait to be actually rewarded for passing and scoring), the vote to kick functionality, displayable PvP stats and the new Novare Coast warzone. You can read the full DevBlog here.

Last but not least the weekly community Q&A has been published. It includes further clarifications on the Legacy system, on the upcoming daily and weekly quests on Corellia and on the new crafting and reverse engineering system.

It also announces a shift in direction with equipment design, with less over-the-top endgame armor sets in the works since “Players have expressed some dissatisfaction” with the looks of the current ones (and that is the euphemism of the century).

You can check the whole Q&A here and check below to listen to the new podcast.